Genetic linkage maps of chicken chromosomes 6, 7, 8, 11 and 13 from a Brazilian resource population

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

EVIDENCE of A FAILED PREDATION ATTEMPT on A GUIANA DOLPHIN, Sotalia guianensis, BY A BULL SHARK, Carcharhinus leucas, IN BRAZILIAN WATERS.

Even though shark-cetacean interactions have been the subject of numerous studies worldwide, several ecological aspects such as competition, predation risk and co-evolution remain unclear. on February 16th, 2008, during a photo-identification survey to investigate population parameters of Guiana dolphins, Sotalia guianensis, in estuarine waters of Parana State (25[degree]S; 48[degree]W), Brazil, an adult dolphin was photographed without its dorsal fin. A detailed analysis of the healed area on the injured dolphin showed that the circular, crescent-shaped outlined wound was provoked by the bite of a bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas. Wound shape, prey-predator distributional patterns (sympatry) and feeding habits of the shark species here considered were indicative of the species' identity. The wound is likely to be the result of a failed predation attempt. Interactions between C. leucas and S. guianensis should be expected, since they are sympatric along almost all of their distribution range in the tropical and subtropical western South Atlantic. The presented observation adds S. guianensis to the list of cetacean species involved in interactions with large coastal predatory sharks.

Modeling the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of deforestation-driven carbon emissions: the INPE-EM framework applied to the Brazilian Amazon

We present a generic spatially explicit modeling framework to estimate carbon emissions from deforestation (INPE-EM). The framework incorporates the temporal dynamics related to the deforestation process and accounts for the biophysical and socioeconomic heterogeneity of the region under study. We build an emission model for the Brazilian Amazon combining annual maps of new clearings, four maps of biomass, and a set of alternative parameters based on the recent literature. The most important results are as follows: (a) Using different biomass maps leads to large differences in estimates of emission; for the entire region of the Brazilian Amazon in the last decade, emission estimates of primary forest deforestation range from 0.21 to 0.26 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1. (b) Secondary vegetation growth presents a small impact on emission balance because of the short duration of secondary vegetation. In average, the balance is only 5% smaller than the primary forest deforestation emissions. (c) Deforestation rates decreased significantly in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years, from 27 similar to Mkm2 in 2004 to 7 similar to Mkm2 in 2010. INPE-EM process-based estimates reflect this decrease even though the agricultural frontier is moving to areas of higher biomass. The decrease is slower than a non-process instantaneous model would estimate as it considers residual emissions (slash, wood products, and secondary vegetation). The average balance, considering all biomass, decreases from 0.28 in 2004 to 0.15 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1 in 2009; the non-process model estimates a decrease from 0.33 to 0.10 similar to Pg similar to C similar to yr-1. We conclude that the INPE-EM is a powerful tool for representing deforestation-driven carbon emissions. Biomass estimates are still the largest source of uncertainty in the effective use of this type of model for informing mechanisms such as REDD+. The results also indicate that efforts to reduce emissions should focus not only on controlling primary forest deforestation but also on creating incentives for the restoration of secondary forests.

Quality of life (QoL) in relation to disease severity in Brazilian Parkinson's patients as measured using the WHOQOL-BREF

This study aimed at evaluating and describing the QoL and its association with the severity of disease among Brazilian Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. In this cross-sectional study 68 PD patients were interviewed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF) and the Hoehn-Yahr (HY) scale. Analysis of variance, chi(2), Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-tests, Spearman and Cronbach reliability coefficients were used to analyze the data. The results indicate: (1) physical capacity was the domain that showed the most deterioration; (2) severity of PD is associated with QoL measured by WHOQOL-BREF; (3) overall QoL, working capacity, activities of daily living (ADL) and self-esteem are affected in both transitional periods in the progression of PD (mild to moderate and moderate to advanced). Satisfaction with general health, pain, energy, positive feelings, personal relationship and satisfaction with home are affected in the first period of transition while mobility, body image, sexual activity and access to information are affected in the second. This study mainly shows specific facets that are affected depending on the specific periods of PD progression, which can help to understand the impact of the disease, the effectiveness of care, and the demand for health care resources. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Short-term variability of copepod abundance in Jurumirim Reservoir, São Paulo, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Annual and short-term variability in primary productivity by phytoplankton and correlated abiotic factors in the Jurumirim Reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil)

A variabilidade anual da produção fotossintética (PP) pelo fitoplâncton na zona da barragem da Represa de Jurumirim (São Paulo, Brasil) foi medida após um estudo no período de três anos sucessivos, com o objetivo de identificar padrões recorrentes e suas causas. Medidas da variabilidade da PP em escala diária foram obtidas em dois períodos do ano (estações seca e chuvosa). Nenhum padrão recorrente foi verificado nos dados de PP, visto não haver relação de sua variabilidade com nenhum fator hidrológico (precipitação, nível e vazão de água e washout) nem, aparentemente, com as condições nutritivas da água. A análise de componentes principais revelou que a PP e a taxa de assimilação foram mais elevadas na época do ano em que o conteúdo de PO4(3-) e N-NH4+ foi mais baixo e quando as razões Z EU/Z MIX foram mais elevadas. A produtividade primária/área pode ser estimada pela razão entre a produtividade volumétrica máxima e o coeficiente de extinção vertical da luz. Entretanto, a biomassa integrada na Z EU foi um pobre preditor da produtividade primária/área. Nenhuma correlação foi encontrada entre a temperatura da água com a produtividade primária (por área e volumétrica máxima). em conseqüência, o estudo da PP em três anos sucessivos mostrou que o padrão de variabilidade é tipicamente caótico. em relação às medidas de curta duração, maior PP foi encontrada na estação seca do que na chuvosa. em ambos os períodos, a variabilidade da PP (por área) foi de aproximadamente 35-40%. O padrão foi atribuído não somente à variação na concentração dos nutrientes mas também à magnitude de penetração de luz na água associado ao regime de circulação. Um comentário sobre a relação entre produção primária pelo fitoplâncton com produção pesqueira é também apresentada.

Income evaluation of small - scale fishers in two brazilian urban reservoirs: Represa Billings (SP) and Lago Paranoá (DF)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

High frequencies of plexiform neurofibromas, mental retardation, learning difficulties, and scoliosis in Brazilian patients with neurofibromatosis type 1

A clinical study of Brazilian patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) was performed in a multidisciplinary Neurofibromatosis Program called CEPAN (Center of Research and Service in Neurofibromatosis). Among 55 patients (60% females, 40% males) who met the NIH criteria for the diagnosis of NF1, 98% had more than six café-au-lait patches, 94.5% had axillary freckling, 45% had inguinal freckling, and 87.5% had Lisch nodules. Cutaneous neurofibromas were observed in 96%, and 40% presented plexiform neurofibromas. A positive family history of NF1 was found in 60%, and mental retardation occurred in 35%. Some degree of scoliosis was noted in 49%, 51% had macrocephaly, 40% had short stature, 76% had learning difficulties, and 2% had optic gliomas. Unexpectedly high frequencies of plexiform neurofibromas, mental retardation, learning difficulties, and scoliosis were observed, probably reflecting the detailed clinical analysis methods adopted by the Neurofibromatosis Program. These same patients were screened for mutations in the GAP-related domain/GRD (exons 20-27a) by single-strand conformation polymorphism. Four different mutations (Q1189X, 3525-3526delAA, E1356G, c.4111-1G>A) and four polymorphisms (c.3315-27G>A, V1146I, V1317A, c.4514+11C>G) were identified. These data were recently published.

Errors in nonword repetition: bridging short- and long-term memory

According to the working memory model, the phonological loop is the component of working memory specialized in processing and manipulating limited amounts of speech-based information. The Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep) is a suitable measure of phonological short-term memory for English-speaking children, which was validated by the Brazilian Children's Test of Pseudoword Repetition (BCPR) as a Portuguese-language version. The objectives of the present study were: i) to investigate developmental aspects of the phonological memory processing by error analysis in the nonword repetition task, and ii) to examine phoneme (substitution, omission and addition) and order (migration) errors made in the BCPR by 180 normal Brazilian children of both sexes aged 4-10, from preschool to 4th grade. The dominant error was substitution [F(3,525) = 180.47; P < 0.0001]. The performance was age-related [F(4,175) = 14.53; P < 0.0001]. The length effect, i.e., more errors in long than in short items, was observed [F(3,519) = 108.36; P < 0.0001]. In 5-syllable pseudowords, errors occurred mainly in the middle of the stimuli, before the syllabic stress [F(4,16) = 6.03; P = 0.003]; substitutions appeared more at the end of the stimuli, after the stress [F(12,48) = 2.27; P = 0.02]. In conclusion, the BCPR error analysis supports the idea that phonological loop capacity is relatively constant during development, although school learning increases the efficiency of this system. Moreover, there are indications that long-term memory contributes to holding memory trace. The findings were discussed in terms of distinctiveness, clustering and redintegration hypotheses.

The Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders: recruitment, assessment instruments, methods for the development of multicenter collaborative studies and preliminary results

OBJETIVO: Descrever o recrutamento de pacientes, instrumentos de avaliação, métodos para o desenvolvimento de estudos colaborativos multicêntricos e os resultados preliminares do Consórcio Brasileiro de Pesquisa em Transtornos do Espectro Obsessivo-Compulsivo, que inclui sete centros universitários. MÉTODO: Este estudo transversal incluiu entrevistas semi-estruturadas (dados sociodemográficos, histórico médico e psiquiátrico, curso da doença e diagnósticos psiquiátricos comórbidos) e instrumentos que avaliam os sintomas do transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo (Escala para Sintomas Obsessivo-Compulsivos de Yale-Brown e Escala Dimensional para Sintomas Obsessivo-Compulsivos de Yale-Brown), sintomas depressivos (Inventário de Depressão de Beck), sintomas ansiosos (Inventário de Ansiedade de Beck), fenômenos sensoriais (Escala de Fenômenos Sensoriais da Universidade de São Paulo), juízo crítico (Escala de Avaliação de Crenças de Brown), tiques (Escala de Gravidade Global de Tiques de Yale) e qualidade de vida (questionário genérico de avaliação de qualidade de vida, Medical Outcome Quality of Life Scale Short-form-36 e Escala de Avaliação Social). O treinamento dos avaliadores consistiu em assistir cinco entrevistas filmadas e entrevistar cinco pacientes junto com um pesquisador mais experiente, antes de entrevistar pacientes sozinhos. A confiabilidade entre todos os líderes de grupo para os instrumentos mais importantes (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, Universidade de São Paulo Sensory Phenomena Scale ) foi medida após seis entrevistas completas. RESULTADOS: A confiabilidade entre avaliadores foi de 96%. Até março de 2008, 630 pacientes com transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo tinham sido sistematicamente avaliados. A média de idade (±SE) foi de 34,7 (±0,51), 56,3% eram do sexo feminino e 84,6% caucasianos. Os sintomas obsessivo-compulsivos mais prevalentes foram os de simetria e os de contaminação. As comorbidades psiquiátricas mais comuns foram depressão maior, ansiedade generalizada e transtorno de ansiedade social. O transtorno de controle de impulsos mais comum foi escoriação neurótica. CONCLUSÃO: Este consórcio de pesquisa, pioneiro no Brasil, permitiu delinear o perfil sociodemográfico, clínico e terapêutico do paciente com transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo em uma grande amostra clínica de pacientes. O Consórcio Brasileiro de Pesquisa em Transtornos do Espectro Obsessivo-Compulsivo estabeleceu uma importante rede de colaboração de investigação clínica padronizada sobre o transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo e pode abrir o caminho para projetos semelhantes destinados a integrar outros grupos de pesquisa no Brasil e em todo o mundo.

Short term hydroelectric scheduling combining network flow and interior point approaches

In this paper, short term hydroelectric scheduling is formulated as a network flow optimization model and solved by interior point methods. The primal-dual and predictor-corrector versions of such interior point methods are developed and the resulting matrix structure is explored. This structure leads to very fast iterations since it avoids computation and factorization of impedance matrices. For each time interval, the linear algebra reduces to the solution of two linear systems, either to the number of buses or to the number of independent loops. Either matrix is invariant and can be factored off-line. As a consequence of such matrix manipulations, a linear system which changes at each iteration has to be solved, although its size is reduced to the number of generating units and is not a function of time intervals. These methods were applied to IEEE and Brazilian power systems, and numerical results were obtained using a MATLAB implementation. Both interior point methods proved to be robust and achieved fast convergence for all instances tested. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cytotaxonomic analysis of Brazilian species of the genus Amazona (Psittacidae, Aves) and confirmation of the genus Salvatoria (Ribeiro, 1920)

The karyotypes of 12 species of Psittacidae of the genus Amazona were studied: A. aestiva, A. amazonica, A. brasiliensis, A. autumnalis, A. farinosa, A, festiva, A. kawalli, A. ochrocephala, A. pretrei, A. rhodocorytha, A. vinacea and A. xanthops. The metaphases were obtained using a short term culture of leather pulp. Eleven of the twelve analyzed species were karyotypically homogeneous, with only a few divergences in chromosomes 2 and 3. The species A. xanthops showed large karyotypic differences compared to the genus Amazona. Consequently, the genus Salvatoria (Ribeiro, Rev. Mus. Paul. 12: 1-82, 1920) was confirmed, and A. xanthops renamed Salvatoria xanthops. The study showed the chromosomic conservation of the genus Amazona and the need for further taxonomic studies of the karyotype of the Psittacidae.

Unusual early morning development of the equatorial anomaly in the Brazilian sector during the Halloween magnetic storm

The solar events that occurred at the end of October 2003 gave rise to very strong geomagnetic disturbances that peaked twice with Dst values reaching -345 nT around 0000 UT on 30 October and -400 nT around 2300 UT, on the same day. Disturbances in several ionospheric parameters were observed over Brazil. This work will focus on the ionospheric response to the initial westward prompt penetration electric field and on the strong intensification of the equatorial ionization anomaly that occurred because of the electric field polarity reversal that followed in the early morning hours of 29 October. The F layer peak height over the equator first decreased under the strong prompt penetration westward electric field, which was followed by significant height increase under eastward electric field. We have used Sheffield University Plasmasphere Ionosphere Model (SUPIM) with an intensified westward disturbed electric field in the presunrise hours, presumably due to prompt penetration from the magnetosphere, in order to study the effect of such a field in the ionosphere. The simulation results showed that prompt penetration of magnetospheric electric fields of westward polarity to the nightside equatorial region seems to be the most probable cause of the initial F layer height decreases. The intensification of the equatorial ionization anomaly and the unusual enhancement on F layer peak density, which was not modeled by the SUPIM, are explained as caused by the strong eastward electric field that followed the initial phase in combination with a highly variable disturbed meridional/transequatorial wind system as inferred from the F2 layer peak height variations. The highly dynamic wind pattern, with a short-term response (2-4 hours), is compatible with the predictions of some previous theoretical model calculations reported in the literature.

Band sizes of southeastern Brazilian hummingbirds

Aluminum numbered bands have been used to mark Brazilian hummingbirds since 1993 to obtain biological data as well as ascertain movements and longevities. Bands should be made as narrow as possible by cutting close to the numbers because of the short length of the hummingbird tarsus. Different band lengths should be determined for different species.

Torpor in three species of Brazilian hummingbirds under semi-natural conditions

We measured body temperatures in three species of Brazilian hummingbirds, the Versicolored Emerald (Amazilia versicolor; body mass 4.1 g), the Black Jacobin (Me lantrochilus fuscus; body mass 7.7 g) and the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird (Eupetomena macroura; body mass 8.6 g), during overnight exposure to natural conditions of photoperiod and ambient temperatures. All three species entered torpor. In both A. versicolor and E. macroura, individuals entered torpor even if they had access to feeders up to the time of sunset. In contrast, M. fuscus was less prone to enter torpor and did so mainly if it had been fasting for more than two hours before sunset. Furthermore, M. fuscus often spent the whole night in torpor, whereas the two other species entered torpor for a variable, often short, period of the night. We observed more than one torpor bout during a single night in all three species. We suggest that multiple nocturnal torpors result from interruption of the normal torpor pattern by some (unknown) external stimuli. Any interrupted torpor was always followed by a new entry into torpor, supporting the view that there is a body mass threshold below which the hummingbirds must enter torpor Our data also indicate that these hummingbird species might use torpor even if they are not energetically stressed.